The Genius Generation
by Sylindara
Summary: Everyone else might see them as a miracle, but Nijimura was their Academy teacher. He knows they're all monsters, every single last one of them. Written for Team Battle on basketballpoetsociety Tumblr [Naruto AU] No Naruto characters actually appear except Tazuna, Zabuza and Haku. Liberties taken with how branch houses work and their existence.
1. Complacency Kills

"This year's genin are monsters," Nijimura tells the Hokage. Shirogane gives him a look of such affable disbelief, Nijimura wants to punch him in the face – which of the two of them is the Chuunin teacher that was stuck with these brats for the past few years? He doesn't, because even he wouldn't go that far against the Hokage. And also because he'd get his butt kicked.

The disbelief fades into confusion as Shirogane makes his way down the list of new Academy graduates. "There are a lot of branch families on here," he notes. "Aomine is a branch of Inuzuka, Kuroko is Nara…and Murasakibara is an Akimichi branch house, isn't it?"

"Keep going," Nijimura says grimly.

"Haizaki! That's the Uchiha boy with his mother's name. I remember the fuss the Uchiha clan made when his mother took him and left the Uchiha compound. To think he's old enough to have graduated the Academy," Shirogane sighs nostalgically.

"Keep going," Nijimura says again.

"Ah." Nijimura can tell Shirogane has reached the most important graduate from the way his mouth sets in a harsh line. "Akashi. Is he really as his father boasted? Does he possess the Rinnegan?"

"I don't know," Nijimura says honestly. "I've kept my eye on him like you told me to, but I've never seen him use anything like the Rinnegan's powers. He's good; he always gets top marks in everything. But not in a way that makes me suspect the Rinnegan." Nijimura's lips twist. "It's just the genius of talent and hard work."

"Hmmm." Shirogane narrows his eyes. "I will take on Akashi myself."

"Really?!" Nijimura can't help but exclaim in surprise. The Hokage himself taking on a genin team? Even if the entire village has been on pins and needles waiting for the Hokage's verdict on Akashi Seijuurou and his possible Rinnegan, to go that far…! "You're taking on a whole genin team?"

"Why not," Shirogane says, and anyone might have thought he wasn't taking things seriously. "I'll take the Murasakibara on my team as well; Akimichi tend to be pretty stable, so hopefully he'll be a good influence."

Nijimura thinks about what he knows of Murasakibara Atsushi; stable isn't really the word he'd use. But the kid is pretty close with Akashi, it's probably fine. "Why not put Midorima as your third? I know that messes up the way we usually do things, all three of them scored really high, but if you want stability you might as well choose the other person who gets along with Akashi."

"Midorima. He's the boy from the commoner family." Shirogane sighs. "Right, of course," he says wistfully.

Nijimura rolls his eyes. "You realise your soft spot for Aomine Daiki is really obvious and embarrassing?"

"Genius needs to be kept an eye on," Shirogane says frankly, straightforward the way ninja aren't supposed to be.

"Yeah, well," Nijimura says, "Aomine works well with Kuroko Tetsuya. It's a good idea to keep them together. Kuroko's scores are pretty pitiful on their own, but working in concert with Aomine and they're capable of some pretty amazing stuff."

"That's good to know," Shirogane muses. "I was thinking having Sanada taking on Aomine, I suppose I should recommend Kuroko too."

"Sanada?" The scepticism slips out despite Nijimura's best efforts. "He's alright for a jounin and all, but is it really a good idea to have him take on Aomine?"

"Root has been raising a fuss," Shirogane says resignedly. "Obviously I am not going to let a Root member take on a genin team, so Sanada is a compromise."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Nijimura says quietly. There's no point raising a fuss of his own.

Later, drowning in his own blood, with Akashi crying over him as the Rinnegan swirl crazily in his eye, Nijimura wishes he _had_ raised a fuss. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way. Feeling his life drain out of him, Nijimura wishes he can go back in time and smack both Shirogane and his past self for their complacency. Too bad it is far too late for regrets. "Don't cry, Akashi. I leave everything to you."


	2. Land of Waves Arc

"I thought I'd seen the last of you lot." Nijimura glowered at the uneven line of genin standing in front of the main gates to Konohagakure.

"So did we," Haizaki scowled right back at him, getting an elbow in his side from Aomine and a nip at his leg from Satsuki at the blatant lack of respect.

"Why are you here, sensei?" Midorima narrowed his eyes at Nijimura. "Shouldn't you be at the Academy?"

"A chuunin gets assigned somewhere else for a while after we graduate a class," Nijimura said. "So we're not stuck with brats for too long and start getting homicidal or something."

"And yet you are here," Kuroko pointed out unexpectedly, reminding Nijimura of his existence. It was such a pity about his…everything; in this aspect at least Kuroko was the perfect ninja.

"I'm here," Nijimura affirmed. "The Hokage can't just randomly leave the village, but genin teams should still get to go out and do some missions outside of Konohagakure." He nodded at Akashi, Midorima, and Murasakibara.

"So you are joining us in place of Shirogane-sensei?" Akashi asked, though Nijimura could tell he wasn't really expecting an answer, he already knew what it would be.

"Alright!" Aomine shouted excitedly to Haizaki's scoff, Satsuki barking happily with him.

Ignoring the scuffle starting up beside him, Kuroko looked measuringly at Nijimura. "It is not like Sanada-sensei to be late, and our client isn't here either."

"Good riddance." Midorima sniffed. "He called us brats."

"The client's coming later," Nijimura said, dragging Aomine and Haizaki apart by the scruffs of their necks and nudging Satsuki off with one foot. "We called you kids out here early so we could brief you before he gets here. Just wait a bit; Sanada should be here any minute now." They didn't need to know that Sanada was late because he was convincing Root to let them take Akashi out of the village. Akashi didn't need any more special treatment, especially since half the ninja upper management wanted to kill him pre-emptively even though they still didn't know whether he had the Rinnegan or not. But none of this was information the genin needed or was allowed to know. Not yet.

"It is not like Sanada-sensei," Kuroko repeated. Not just him, but Midorima and Akashi were both looking at Nijimura consideringly too. Even the other three, for all that they didn't look like they cared, Nijimura could feel the curiosity and suspicion from them. Even the dog was looking at him distrustfully. This year's genin really were monsters.

Luckily, Sanada arrived just then, distracting their attention from Nijimura. "Let's get the debriefing started. As you all are aware already, this should be just a simple escort mission. But I'm sure you all noticed the discrepancy in the client's attitude. Which is why the Hokage agreed to supply two genin teams even though it's just a simple C mission. And why we want you all to be on your guard at all times."

Nijimura stared at the six genin one by one. Aomine was staring dumbly, as expected – despite his physical aptitude, Aomine was a crap ninja when it came to thinking like one. Haizaki, Kuroko, and Murasakibara all had a shrewd look on their faces at least, they're still young and inexperienced but they didn't need worrying over. Not like Midorima who was looking disdainful; how was such a smart kid so dumb sometimes, it was a mystery. Akashi was a mystery too, though in a totally different way; he looked like he suddenly understood everything, and Nijimura would dearly have liked to know just what he thought he understood.

He didn't ask, in the end, because Akashi's secrets were his own. Nijimura would take what he was willing to give, but it wasn't his place to demand more. Instead, Nijimura and Sanada went over what to look out for in more detail, and some basic strategies just in case. They tried to go over hand signals too, but Aomine, as usual, did not have the ability to retain them and Haizaki, as usual, did not have the inclination to retain them. Becoming genin didn't seem to have changed them at all.

It was a relief when their client finally arrived, ready to go. They left the village with Nijimura on point, taking Haizaki with him so he could keep an eye on the kid. Nijimura understood why Shirogane wanted to keep all the monsters together, but for all his merits – of which he had a lot Nijimura could attest, having been one of his students while he was a chuunin teacher at the Academy – Sanada could not keep Haizaki in line.

There was the faint sounds of another scuffle behind him, but by the time Nijimura turned around the order had been settled with Murasakibara and Aomine on either side of the bridge builder that was their client, Midorima and Akashi in front of them, and Sanada just behind. Kuroko was nowhere to be seen, which meant he had been sent on lookout – his lack of presence making him the perfect sentry and a good trump card for the element of surprise. It was a pity he didn't have the stamina, they'd have to draw him back in by lunch.

Luckily, nothing happened that first day, or the next few days. They'd taken it easy, not rushing to their destination despite their client's – Tazuna's – complaints. It wasn't out of laziness like he had accused them of, or because they didn't feel the need. They'd all felt the heavy presence of someone – several someones – spying on them; it was a gamble hoping the spies would show themselves if the escort party kept their pace slow, but they didn't have much of a choice with such untried genin as their taskforce.

It made for a jumpy journey. Nijimura and Sanada split the night watch between them in hopes of making the genin get some sleep; it didn't work. Satsuki gave up sleeping completely, taking short naps at random moments as if it could make up for the insomnia. Kuroko was the only one who slept until morning thanks to his lack of stamina, the other genin kept startling awake from the prickling of hidden eyes. After a while, Nijimura gave up on ordering them back to sleep; letting them stay up with him a while worked better in getting the adrenaline to drain out of them and allow them to rest.

The day time wasn't much better. They kept the order of the first day, though Haizaki didn't have the equanimity to make trouble anymore. Behind them, instead of the silence of the first day's march, Aomine and Midorima were doing their best to interrogate their client, with Sanada cutting in every once in a while to keep their interrogations on the right path. They didn't have much of an effect on him; not just because their interrogation technique was weak, Tazuna was a hard nut to crack.

With the atmosphere the way it was, it was almost a relief getting attacked the moment they entered the Land of Waves proper. Or at least, it was a relief until Nijimura realised just who was attacking them. Who the hell did a simple bridge builder piss off that they'd send Zabuza of the Mist after him?

All of them had been ready for something, so at least their reflexes were just fine. Murasakibara and Midorima had immediately corralled Tazuna against a rock cropping, Murasakibara acting as a shield for the two of them while Midorima readied his specialty – projectiles. Aomine and Satsuki were properly covering Sanada and letting him go up against a clone of Zabuza, so he must have learned something after all, while Akashi had quietly faded into the bushes – though not good enough if Nijimura still noticed him.

Nijimura joined the fight with his own specialty of taijutsu while Sanada hung back with Aomine, Satsuki and Haizaki to look for the real Zabuza. Nijimura consciously tried not to look for Kuroko as he fought the clone; if they didn't know where the kid was, then Zabuza might not either.

Zabuza was good, better than Sanada or Nijimura, even just the clone gave Nijimura a lot of trouble. He was bleeding from several – luckily shallow – cuts by the end of it, and turned to find Sanada trapped in Zabuza's water prison with one clone fighting Aomine, Satsuki and Haizaki – who wouldn't be having nearly the trouble they were if they'd just work together, the idiots – and another starting to get through Murasakibara.

Nijimura quickly dashed towards the clone that was breaking Murasakibara's arm, distracting it at a crucial moment and allowing Midorima's shuriken to finally find their mark. As if counting on that timing, Akashi erupted out of the underbrush, just barely managing to score a thin line against Zabuza's back. Leaving Midorima to take care of first aid – for both Murasakibara's broken arm and the cut on his own forearm that was bleeding heavily – Nijimura went to cover Akashi while Sanada took the time to put himself together.

Even with all three of them working together, it was a hard fight. Nijimura kept to his taijutsu, knowing his pathetic ninjutsu and genjutsu would be worthless. Those he left to the others; Akashi setting up the small genjutsu that he was good at – unnoticeable little things that caused you to miss the target by just a few centimetres, that had you step just a little wrong, that made you not notice that one mistake in your hand seals, while Sanada covered him with ninjutsu – trying to evaporate as much of the water as possible.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nijimura saw that Kuroko had finally joined the battle with Aomine and Haizaki at some point – Satsuki having retired to where their client was, a heavy slash down one flank. The three of them working somewhat like a team, finally, with Haizaki using taijutsu to distract the clone – his sharingan eyes whirling as they kept him out of range of its attacks – while Aomine threw projectiles from between it and where Murasakibara and Midorima were surrounding Tazuna. Kuroko stayed out of sight, using the Nara family technique that he would have known as one of their branch houses to control the shadows and stop the clone's movements. It was too bad none of them was in any condition to come help out with the real Zabuza after they defeated the clone, but at least Nijimura didn't need to worry about them anymore.

On their side, they had managed to get rid of all the water Zabuza needed for his attacks, and incapacitate one of his legs thanks to a lucky combination of Akashi's genjutsu that made Zabuza overextend himself, Nijimura taking the chance to grab onto his leg, and Sanada's fire ninjutsu at point blank range.

It still wasn't enough. But then suddenly an arrow came flying, crunching through Zabuza's shoulder. He froze abruptly, and with a start Nijimura realised that Kuroko had sent his shadow with the arrow Midorima had released. It was chance that wasn't going to come again; but just as Sanada got ready to break Zabuza's neck, a number of senbon pierced it instead.

Eyeing the masked ninja towering over them, Nijimura really wished they didn't just have a group of genin here. None of them were in any position to fight someone new and fresh, not with Kuroko and Sanada facing chakra exhaustion, Murasakibara with a broken arm, Midorima, Aomine, and Satsuki all with slashed arteries, and Haizaki with at least two sprains he could see. The only ones still able to fight were Nijimura – who had lost enough blood that he knew his reaction time was slowing – and Akashi, who had long since lost all his weapons. Nijimura could see Sanada reaching the same conclusion as him, letting the masked ninja take Zabuza unchallenged even though they all knew Zabuza wasn't dead and the masked kid wasn't a hunter nin.

Nijimura waited until all the first aid had been done, Kuroko starting to nod off already and the others looking not much better as they came off the adrenaline high, before he turned to the white-faced Tazuna. Their client needed a very good explanation for why he was endangering the lives of Konohagakure ninja by not being upfront about just how dangerous the mission actually was – starting with the fact that Zabuza of the Mist of all people was involved. "Start talking."


	3. To be a Team

Nijimura sits down heavily in front of a waterfall near Tazuna's home, nominally keeping watch on the genin while they fine-tune their chakra control. Nominally, because the monsters that they are, Akashi and Midorima are already at the top of the waterfall, peering down at the others. Aomine and Haizaki are almost there too, egging each other on in some kind of weird competition where they're only sending chakra down one arm and leg to stick to the water as they climb. Murasakibara is far behind the rest of them, still only three quarters up the waterfall – not because he can't do it, but because he obviously doesn't care. And Kuroko is… Nijimura looks to his left. Kuroko is still barely halfway up the tree and he's already looking exhausted, Satsuki barking encouragement up at him from the ground.

Nijimura slouches down further. Something needs to be done about Kuroko. If it is just a lack of chakra problem, he can still go into taijutsu. Unfortunate, but not insurmountable. But in his case, not only does Kuroko need that chakra for Nara's shadow techniques, his physical ability is also at the very bottom. What a waste.

Feeling the presence of Sanada behind him, Nijimura turns to face the jounin. "I thought you're keeping an eye on Tazuna?"

Sanada looks at him. "My summon came back."

Nijimura quickly sits up straight again. "What did the Hokage say?"

"He wants the genin to make the decision," Sanada says grimly.

Nijimura raises an eyebrow. "Okay…and what does Root say?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Sanada says wryly.

Nijimura shakes his head slowly. "Murasakibara and Haizaki will want to leave. They think this is too much bother. Aomine and Midorima are kind. They will want to help. Akashi…"

"Akashi-kun will want to stay," Kuroko says suddenly from beside Nijimura. "I want to stay and help too."

Nijimura shouts in surprise and jumps to his feet. Sanada too looks like he's just seen a ghost, one hand on his belt. It really is such a pity about Kuroko.

"What happened?" comes the voices of Aomine and the others, making their way over having completed the waterfall climb. "Did Tetsu surprise you guys? Isn't it kind of embarrassing getting one-upped by a genin?"

"Isn't it kind of embarrassing having the worst academic scores of all of the genin?" Nijimura retorts, flicking Aomine's forehead sharply.

"Ow!"

Sanada coughs, adjusting his glasses. "Be that as it may, we have received correspondence from Konohagakure. As this is your first mission out of the village, you six will get to decide how to proceed from now on. We have completed the mission of bringing our client to the Land of Waves, it is well within our purview to leave." Sanada pauses.

The genin look at each other, having a conversation with their eyes. Nijimura feels a bit of pride that they've progressed to this point, then embarrassed – what does it have to do with him, after all?

Murasakibara heaves a long-suffering sigh; beside him, Haizaki turns away with a tsk. It looks like the discussion is over. Akashi faces Nijimura and Sanada fully, expression grave. "We wish to take up Tazuna-san's mission to protect the builders and the bridge from Gatou."

"Even if it means having to go up against Zabuza?" Nijimura reminds them. "He has at least one helper that we know of. And that's not counting whatever other shinobi Gatou has working for him."

"The Hokage says that a re-evaluation of our mission can make it as high as A-rank," Sanada adds.

There is another exchange of glances, Kuroko nods once firmly. Akashi turns back. "Yes. We would like to take on this mission."

"Very well." Sanada closes his eyes briefly. Nijimura knows he's wondering what he should tell Root. They won't be happy about Akashi facing life-endangering risk so far from Konoha. It's only natural to want Konoha to have possession of Akashi's eyes if and when he dies. "Tazuna starts work on the bridge tomorrow. We will be going with him." Sanada turns to Aomine. "You and Kuroko stay behind just in case. Whether anything happens to Tazuna's family or not, it's better to leave Kuroko as our trump card."

Sanada waits for their acknowledgement then makes his way back to Tazuna's place. Nijimura nods at Sanada as he passes, he'll keep an eye on Akashi while Sanada is with Tazuna.

Nijimura turns back as Aomine lets out a loud curse. "Does that mean I have to spend tomorrow with that brat?"

"Don't call Inari a brat," Kuroko says reproachfully. "He is a traumatised little boy lashing out."

"It's not his fault that commoner children aren't inured to death," Akashi says firmly. "Don't bait him, Aomine."

"I haven't been baiting him," Aomine protests. "That's Haizaki. I just think he gives up too easily."

"Commoner children are so frail," Murasakibara adds derisively, either uncaring or not even noticing the way Midorima is twitching.

Watching Midorima start shouting at Murasakibara on one side while Haizaki and Aomine get into yet another fistfight on the other, Nijimura quietly readjusts his assessment. They still have a long way to go to become proper teams.


End file.
